The evolution of computer networking has seen a trend towards greater use of packet-switched networks having a mesh topology. To some extent, networks having a ring topology have begun to fall out of favour. Nevertheless, the ring topology provides certain attractive benefits, including resiliency and efficiency, that are not necessarily present in a mesh network.
In the interests of privacy and confidentiality it is sometimes desirable to establish an Ethernet virtual private network (VPN) over a packet-switched mesh network. A known approach for establishing Ethernet over a packet-switched mesh network includes tunneling each node to each other node, creating an N2 mesh of tunnels. Other approaches include the “Martini” architecture or the RFC2547 architecture. These latter approaches are complex, hard to scale, and fail to adequately address resiliency and broadcast problems.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a method of establishing a flexible VPN in a mesh network that addresses some of the shortcomings of known solutions.